BTS’ ‘Map Of The Soul: 7’ will dominate international charts…with a little help from Sia

BTS’ ARMY has manoeuvred the group into strike position for global chart domination. With an assist from Sia.

The K-pop phenomenon’s new album Map Of The Soul: 7 is racing to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, based on early sales and streaming data.

In the United States, BTS is an unbackable favourite for a fourth chart crown.

The set has chalked up more than 300,000 equivalent album units Stateside. with much of that total powered by album sales, industry sources tell Billboard.

BTS became the first South Korean act to top the Billboard 200, with 2018’s Love Yourself: Tear. They repeated the feat later that year with, Love Yourself: Answer, and again in 2019 with Map of the Soul: Persona.

That’s three U.S. No. 1 albums in less than a year.

The last group to snag a hattrick at a faster rate was The Monkees, way back in 1967.

Watch BTS’ ‘ON’:

BTS aren’t just flying high. They’re at the vanguard of a movement. When Map Of The Soul: 7 dropped last Friday, BTS’ well-drilled fanbase ARMY made sure the group locked-up all 20 of the top trending topics on Twitter.

Just one Korean act not named BTS has ruled the main U.S. chart — SuperM, a “supergroup” featuring members from Shinee, Exo, NCT 127, WayV, whose 2019’s The 1st Mini Album hit the top.

Over in the U.K., Map Of The Soul: 7 is outselling its three nearest competitors — Ozzy Osbourne’s Ordinary Man; Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent and Stormzy’s Heavy Is The Head — combined to lead the midweek chart.

BTS

The group already have a U.K. No. 1 with Map Of The Soul : Persona, becoming the first K-pop act to do so.

In Australia, BTS has an early lead. Although the pop outfit has many chart challengers from Amity Affliction, Polaris and more. The singers earned their first and only No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart last April with Map Of The Soul: Persona.

Map Of The Soul: 7 has an Australian connection. The single “ON,” a reboot of BTS’ very first song ‘N.O’ from album O!RUL8,2?, features vocals from Sia.

The accompanying music video has surged past 80 million views on YouTube in just three days.

https://twitter.com/Sia/status/1230851415591051264

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.